Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Speaker 1: Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. So back in twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: we had an episode about Crisus of Lydia, and Sollen
Speaker 1: came up in it, and I mentioned that Solin was
Speaker 1: on my list, and then he came up again recently,
Speaker 1: and when we did our most recent Eclipse episode, another
Speaker 1: of the seven Stages of Greece, sta Ley's of my
Speaker 1: leaders came up, and I was like, whoops, I forgot
Speaker 1: about Solin. And then I just randomly saw someone using
Speaker 1: Solin as part of their username on social media. That
Speaker 1: person was kind of being a jerk to people, frankly,
Speaker 1: but I thought, okay, Universe, I get it. Go back
Speaker 1: to Solin. So we're going to do that today. But
Speaker 1: talking about Solin comes with a pretty significant caveat because
Speaker 1: the main biographies about him that we have were written
Speaker 1: by Aristotle and hundreds of years after his death. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of very valid examination and criticism regarding how
Speaker 1: much of any of the their four main biographies that
Speaker 1: we have, how much of any of those feature accurate content.
Speaker 1: We don't have anything really in the way of primary
Speaker 1: sources in terms of Salin's writing. It's like a few
Speaker 1: lines here and there that have survived. As historian Ivan
Speaker 1: Mortimer lynfthrote in nineteen nineteen, quote, are we to suppose
Speaker 1: that Aristotle owed nothing to earlier writers? Meaning that there's
Speaker 1: almost certainly been a bending of truths or a shifting
Speaker 1: of truths as one person's perspective is used as a
Speaker 1: source and then viewed through the lens of another writer
Speaker 1: who has their own perspective. And even those accounts that
Speaker 1: we do have have all been translated by different people
Speaker 1: with some differences that affect the way that we might
Speaker 1: perceive Salin's life. And we're going to talk about one
Speaker 1: such difference right out of the gate. So keep all
Speaker 1: of that in mind as we discuss this this merchant
Speaker 1: slash civic leader slash military leader. Today, as we said,
Speaker 1: Salin is considered to be one of the seven Sages
Speaker 1: or wise men of Greece, and his actions are credited
Speaker 1: with sowing the seeds of what would become Athenian democracy.
Speaker 1: He's kind of considered a founding father of Athens. In
Speaker 1: what is sometimes perceived as its idealized state, but as
Speaker 1: will become a parent, there's really no such thing, and
Speaker 1: a lot of people get mad anytime people try to
Speaker 1: make changes. So here we go. Sollin was born around
Speaker 1: six forty to six thirty BCE. A lot of sources
Speaker 1: cite the year six thirty eight BCE as the specific year.
Speaker 1: That's tough to really substantiate, though, given how far back
Speaker 1: that is. His father was excess steed and their family
Speaker 1: was considered high ranking in the social hierarchy of the time,
Speaker 1: they didn't seem to have the wealth that often came
Speaker 1: with that standing. Though his father was believed to be
Speaker 1: descended from Kodras, one of the so called semi mythical
Speaker 1: kings of Athens, who is said to have reigned after
Speaker 1: ten sixty eight BCE. On Solom's mother's side, he is
Speaker 1: said to have had an intense friendship with the son
Speaker 1: of his mother's cousin, that's a man named Paisistratus. In
Speaker 1: Plutarch's biography of Solin, he writes that Soalen was said
Speaker 1: to be passionately in love with Paisistratus. That is according
Speaker 1: to one translation, but another translation, which was translated in
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety five by John Dryden, is less direct about
Speaker 1: the possibility of a romantic attachment between the men, stating quote,
Speaker 1: and they say Solin loved him, And that is the
Speaker 1: reason I suppose that when afterward they differed about the government,
Speaker 1: their enmity never pretty any hot and violent passion. They
Speaker 1: remembered their old kindnesses and retained still in its embers,
Speaker 1: living the strong fire of their love and dear affection.
Speaker 1: So I point that out just to note that like obviously,
Speaker 1: different authors would not have been as comfortable suggesting whenever
Speaker 1: they did their translation that these two men were romantically
Speaker 1: affinitied towards one another, but others are very comfortable with it.
Speaker 1: That is just one example of the ways that different
Speaker 1: perspectives have shifted Salin's life story through the years. We
Speaker 1: mentioned the already that Salin's family was not wealthy, and
Speaker 1: part of this was because his father quote had impaired
Speaker 1: his estate in sundry benevolent charities. So Salin's father had
Speaker 1: donated family money to various causes. In any case, Salin
Speaker 1: had to work in his earliest career, and he had
Speaker 1: a few was working as a merchant or a trader.
Speaker 1: According to the Plutarch biography, he had plenty of friends
Speaker 1: who would have helped him out find Angeley, but quote,
Speaker 1: since he was descended from a family who were accustomed
Speaker 1: to do kindnesses rather than receive them, therefore applied himself
Speaker 1: to merchandise in his youth. Though others assure us that
Speaker 1: he traveled rather to get learning and experience than to
Speaker 1: make money. Yeah, so he did travel a lot, and
Speaker 1: we'll talk about it. Working as a merchant was not
Speaker 1: stigmatized or considered shameful in Salin's time. Plutarch noted many
Speaker 1: great men who have worked in the same field. The
Speaker 1: reason Plutarch points it out is because when he was
Speaker 1: writing many years later, that would have had a little
Speaker 1: more stigma. Solin is credited with writing that he was
Speaker 1: fine with having wealth, but not if it was gained
Speaker 1: in some wrong way. So there's a moral element to
Speaker 1: his relationship with money. There is also a bit of
Speaker 1: what seems a contradiction, at least to Plutarch, in the
Speaker 1: way that Salin moved in the world, because Solin considered
Speaker 1: himself to be a relatively poor man, but he also
Speaker 1: had plenty of experiences and a lot of things that
Speaker 1: we would associate with wealth, which Plutarch reconciles as being
Speaker 1: quote due to his mercantile life, which along with travel,
Speaker 1: came with a certain number of luxuries, and also the
Speaker 1: necessity of like courting people when it came to interactions
Speaker 1: of a business nature. But merchant work was not what
Speaker 1: Salon became famous for. An ongoing conflict over occupation of
Speaker 1: the island of Salamis was what eventually put Salon in
Speaker 1: a position of notoriety. Athens and its neighboring city, Magara
Speaker 1: had been at war over Salamis for a long time.
Speaker 1: This island sat and sits between them. Both of them
Speaker 1: were depleted by this ongoing conflict. At this point, Magara
Speaker 1: held the islands, but even in Athens, most people wanted
Speaker 1: a little bit of time to just rest and recuperate.
Speaker 1: According to that Dryden translation, there were even laws on
Speaker 1: the books in Athens that quote, no one in the future,
Speaker 1: on pain of death, should move in writing or orally
Speaker 1: that the city take up its contention for Salamis. Uh
Speaker 1: Salon apparently did not agree with the idea of just
Speaker 1: taking a breather from this war, and he found it
Speaker 1: to be so disgraceful that the leadership of Athens was like,
Speaker 1: let's just drop this. Uh. He found it so disgraceful that,
Speaker 1: according to Plutarch, he created a ruse to enable himself
Speaker 1: to speak out on the matter, even though that was illegal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So that ruse was that Salen pretended to be mad, or,
Speaker 1: as Dryden translates it, out of his head, and his
Speaker 1: family is said to have actually shared the information that
Speaker 1: Salon was not in his right mind with authorities, kind
Speaker 1: of laying this groundwork that he clearly, you know, should
Speaker 1: not be held accountable for things that he said, so
Speaker 1: that if and when he said something that was perceived
Speaker 1: as illegal or inappropriate, everyone would know he's not really responsible,
Speaker 1: and thus he would have the death penalty. This was
Speaker 1: all part of a bigger plan because it set the
Speaker 1: stage for an oration that Salen had been preparing. He
Speaker 1: had written it out and memorized it, and when he
Speaker 1: felt ready, he walked out into the marketplace and it
Speaker 1: was already crowded, but a crowd continued to gather and
Speaker 1: he addressed those present, and this was a poem that
Speaker 1: he called Salamis, and it opened with the lines quote,
Speaker 1: behold in me a herald come from lovely Salamis with
Speaker 1: a song and ordered verse instead of a harangue. This poem,
Speaker 1: which was one hundred verses long, was apparently quite moving
Speaker 1: and inspired not only praise but also a renewed desire
Speaker 1: to once again take Salamis back from Magara and to
Speaker 1: change that law. And when the decision was made to
Speaker 1: return to warring over the island, Athenians put Solin in
Speaker 1: charge of the military effort. So this does kind of
Speaker 1: open the question of why a merchant would be put
Speaker 1: in such a position and also why he was willing
Speaker 1: to risk the death penalty to speak out about the
Speaker 1: issue in the first place. While Plutarch characterizes this as
Speaker 1: a matter of Athenian pride, there are other factors that
Speaker 1: should be considered. For one, Salin's family was from Salamis,
Speaker 1: Salin was born there, so he did feel an attachment
Speaker 1: to that island and he wanted it to be part
Speaker 1: of Athenian territory. But there was also a matter of money.
Speaker 1: In an article titled Solon and the Meagarian Question, which
Speaker 1: was published in the Journal of Hellenistic Studies in nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty seven, writer A French notes quote the war for
Speaker 1: Salamis was most probably fought to make possible the free
Speaker 1: use to Athenian ships of the ports of southern Attica,
Speaker 1: as well as to open the route to the Isthmus
Speaker 1: of Corinth. Perhaps even with Salamis in enemy hands, Athenian
Speaker 1: ships or ships trading with Athenians had managed to run
Speaker 1: into the ports of southern Attica, and no doubt the
Speaker 1: attempted molesting of such ships had helped to keep the
Speaker 1: struggle alive. But it is hard to believe that any
Speaker 1: great volume of trade would have regularly passed this dangerous way,
Speaker 1: and that there was a volume of trade is fairly
Speaker 1: substantiated not only by the Athenian success against Magara, implying
Speaker 1: the existence of substantial naval strength, but also by the
Speaker 1: career of Solon himself, by Solomon's measures affecting international trade,
Speaker 1: and by the distribution of early Attic pottery. So to
Speaker 1: sum that up a bit, Solin's oration was likely informed
Speaker 1: and motivated by his work. If Solomis was not controlled
Speaker 1: by Athens, Athenian merchants like himself were likely losing some
Speaker 1: of their potential business. Even in the Plutarch account, two
Speaker 1: different versions of how the Athenian effort to retake Salamis
Speaker 1: played out, and one the Athenians led a trap. That's
Speaker 1: another ruse that was attributed to Solon, and this trap,
Speaker 1: they sent a fake informant to the Megarians to tell
Speaker 1: them where the quote chief Athenian women were making their
Speaker 1: usual sacrifices to series. This was suggesting that the Megarians
Speaker 1: could easily capture the women there. But when the troops
Speaker 1: of Magara acted on this information and arrived at the
Speaker 1: Cape of Colias, the Athenians were waiting there. They were
Speaker 1: not women, they were clean shaven men who had disguised
Speaker 1: themselves as women. According to Plutarch's version, none of the
Speaker 1: Megarians got away. The Athenians were able to sail to
Speaker 1: Salamis very easily and seize it. As an aside, the
Speaker 1: Cape of Colias was an area to the west of
Speaker 1: that region of Attica, that's the historical region of Attica
Speaker 1: that contained the city of Athens. So in the second
Speaker 1: possible way that things went down, Salin got a message
Speaker 1: from the oracle at Delphi that he had to make
Speaker 1: offerings to the heroes of Salamis, which he did, and
Speaker 1: then he gathered five hundred men of Athens and mounted
Speaker 1: a small fleet and anchored off the coast of Salamis,
Speaker 1: and when a Megarian show went out to scout the area,
Speaker 1: Saloon's men took it, and then they sailed that ship
Speaker 1: back to Salamis for a sneak attack. At the same time,
Speaker 1: Salon mounted a ground assault, and while he and the
Speaker 1: men with him engaged the army of Megara, the men
Speaker 1: who were on that ship were able to attack from
Speaker 1: the other side. But this actually doesn't sound like a win.
Speaker 1: Both sides continued to fight, and eventually Spartans were called
Speaker 1: in to arbitrate the situation. The Spartans who examined the
Speaker 1: information and made their determinations over who the victor was were,
Speaker 1: according to Plutarch, Critulaitis, Amampharidas, Hipsychitis, Annexilis, and Cleomenes. And
Speaker 1: they heard both sides of things, which included some wheeling
Speaker 1: and dealing about various people being given citizenship in Athens
Speaker 1: as a potential way to work things out, and also
Speaker 1: how the dead were to be buried, And then they
Speaker 1: ultimately determined that Salin's Athenian forces had won the battle
Speaker 1: and the island up. We'll talk about the responsibility Solon
Speaker 1: was given after his military triumph first, though we will
Speaker 1: pause for a sponsor break. As a result of his
Speaker 1: massive success at Salamis, Solen was made the arkhon of Athens,
Speaker 1: So that word arkhan lends itself to a little bit
Speaker 1: of fuzziness, depending on what definition you're looking at. Beginning
Speaker 1: in six point eighty two BCE, Athens had moved to
Speaker 1: a governance structure in which arkhan served for one year
Speaker 1: terms of leadership. This was a change from the previous
Speaker 1: setup where arkans had lifetime appointments, and of course that's
Speaker 1: a change from a whole previous thing. But for the
Speaker 1: context of arkon, to become an arkon, you had to
Speaker 1: be elected, but you were elected by previous arkhans. Commoners,
Speaker 1: so to speak, did not have a voice. This evolved
Speaker 1: over the course of a couple of decades to be
Speaker 1: almost a committee or council style of power structure called
Speaker 1: the areopagus, where nine arkons led Athens. Plutarch's description of
Speaker 1: Solon in this role, which he likely stepped into in
Speaker 1: the five nineties BCE, mentions it as singular, though sometimes
Speaker 1: he's called the chief Arkon, so he is either the
Speaker 1: only one or the one that is leading this group,
Speaker 1: depending on which translation you look at. Plutarch quotes the
Speaker 1: oracle of Delphi calling Solon the pilot of Athens, and
Speaker 1: that's because he was considered chief Arkon. The rest that
Speaker 1: would have been there acted as a council kind of
Speaker 1: under him, and that too, was a setup that had evolved.
Speaker 1: There were different names for different positions within that group
Speaker 1: of the rest of the Arkans, but having a chief
Speaker 1: Arkon had led to infighting among the aristocratic families, who
Speaker 1: all wanted their guide to be the chief Arkhan. Of course,
Speaker 1: some Arkons in various points had refused to give up
Speaker 1: their power when their year was up, and that led
Speaker 1: to additional infighting. H this was a time when Athens
Speaker 1: really needed a good life. There was a very unbalanced
Speaker 1: situation playing out economically. Most of the wealth was in
Speaker 1: the hands of just a handful of Athenians. In terms
Speaker 1: of landholdings, almost all the agricultural land that supported people
Speaker 1: with food was owned by that small ruling group, and
Speaker 1: they had acquired it on the cheap when struggling farmers
Speaker 1: had needed to sell it. The rest of the people
Speaker 1: were in situations similar to indentured servitude or sharecropping, and
Speaker 1: that progressed into enslavement. The common people who worked the
Speaker 1: land had to pay one sixth of the value of
Speaker 1: their crops to the owners of that land, and if
Speaker 1: their payments fell short for any reason, their debts were
Speaker 1: paid with their own bodies or those of their families.
Speaker 1: They basically became enslaved to the landowners. In some cases,
Speaker 1: people became enslaved when they took loans from the wealthy
Speaker 1: they offered their families as collateral. They're really just wasn't
Speaker 1: any way to gain enough income working the lands to
Speaker 1: pay off a debt, So this was a losing arrangement
Speaker 1: for anybody except people who were already wealthy. And then
Speaker 1: once a person became enslaved, they could be forced to
Speaker 1: continue working as farmers or they could be sold off. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in some cases they were sold off to people in
Speaker 1: other countries or other city states. So it was just
Speaker 1: a completely unstable structure. This entire economic problem was further
Speaker 1: complicated by the politics at the time. The leadership positions
Speaker 1: of Athens could only be held by members of the aristocracy,
Speaker 1: and they were certainly not going to amend any laws
Speaker 1: to lose their power over everyone else, since most people
Speaker 1: were in some degree of predicament or danger in terms
Speaker 1: of owing landowners' money or being enslaved to them, or
Speaker 1: being on the precipice of that situation. The vast majority
Speaker 1: of Athens was calling for reform, and Sullen, who was
Speaker 1: outside of this particular structure as a merchant, but who
Speaker 1: was also from a noble family and who was perceived
Speaker 1: as the hero who had retaken Salamis, was looked to
Speaker 1: as the person who could figure this whole problem out.
Speaker 1: According to Plutarch, quote, then the wisest of the Athenians,
Speaker 1: perceiving Solon was, of all men, the only one not
Speaker 1: implicated in the troubles, that he had not joined in
Speaker 1: the exactions of the rich and was not involved in
Speaker 1: the necessities of the poor, pressed him to succor the
Speaker 1: commonwealth and compose the differences. He was specifically asked to
Speaker 1: mediate the resolution and to find a way that Athenians
Speaker 1: and Athens could move forward before the city state tore
Speaker 1: itself apart from the inside. Plutarch and Aristotle described Soloon
Speaker 1: as being really reluctant to take this role because he
Speaker 1: knew no matter what he did, he was likely going
Speaker 1: to anger people. He had apparently become known for saying,
Speaker 1: according to Plutarch quote, when things are even, there can
Speaker 1: never be war. But it seems that everyone, regardless of
Speaker 1: their wealth, perceived this to mean that they would get
Speaker 1: the best end of the deal in terms of what
Speaker 1: evenness meant. So the wealthy thought that this meant everyone
Speaker 1: would get their fair amount based on their value and
Speaker 1: standing in society, which would mean they still got a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of money or a whole bunch of land,
Speaker 1: while the poor interpreted it as being a promise to
Speaker 1: divide wealth and prosperity of Athens evenly among all of
Speaker 1: its citizens. When he started this new role in five
Speaker 1: ninety four BCE, Salin made some bold moves. His first
Speaker 1: move is frequently described as a racing all debt, but
Speaker 1: that might be an overstatement. It appears that the real
Speaker 1: way he altered the debt system was to create laws
Speaker 1: that forbade anyone from using themselves or their family as
Speaker 1: financial collateral, and he enabled people to claim the land
Speaker 1: that they worked as farmers, so that gave them the
Speaker 1: financial footing to pay off their debts. He also emancipated
Speaker 1: people who had been enslaved because of debt. Incidentally, he
Speaker 1: was embroiled, according to Plutarch, in a mild scandal over
Speaker 1: the idea of forgiving debts. Apparently, as he was working
Speaker 1: through his ideas and what he was going to do,
Speaker 1: he spoke with some of his friends about his plan
Speaker 1: to enact debt forgiveness. And then those friends with the
Speaker 1: inside tip went and borrowed a bunch of money and
Speaker 1: purchased land with it in anticipation of the debt soon
Speaker 1: being erased. But again, debts weren't canceled outright. A lot
Speaker 1: of them were restructured and their interest agreements amended to
Speaker 1: more reasonable terms. And Solin himself had people who owed
Speaker 1: him money and he fully forgave those debts, and that
Speaker 1: kind of helped silence his critics on the matter. But
Speaker 1: his friends who did not reverse their dealings they had
Speaker 1: made were pretty much perceived as weasels after that. Naturally,
Speaker 1: this whole debt forgiveness thing was not popular with the
Speaker 1: aristocracy because they felt like their wealth had been diminished.
Speaker 1: The whoorr also were not really happy because they thought
Speaker 1: the wealth of Athens could be redistributed in a way
Speaker 1: that would give them more of it. Solin noted in
Speaker 1: his writing that any other man would have made himself
Speaker 1: rich with the power of the Arkon. Eventually, the initial
Speaker 1: fury over the changes died down those changes were accepted.
Speaker 1: His debt relief efforts later came to be known as seisachthea,
Speaker 1: which translates to shaking off of burdens. But Solin went
Speaker 1: further than that in changing Athens completely in his time
Speaker 1: as Arkan. He also laid out a completely new class system,
Speaker 1: and this was designed to appease the wealthy by still
Speaker 1: giving them positions of leadership within the government, and to
Speaker 1: appease those of the lower classes by still giving them
Speaker 1: a voice in how Athens was run. He wrote a
Speaker 1: verse about his new system that went like this quote,
Speaker 1: such power I gave the people as might do, abridged
Speaker 1: not what they had now lavish knew those that were
Speaker 1: great and wealth, health and high in place. My council
Speaker 1: likewise kept from all disgrace before them. Both I held
Speaker 1: my shield of might, and let not either touch the others. Right,
Speaker 1: The new system was based on what any given person had,
Speaker 1: and used that as a way to sort them into
Speaker 1: four categories. These accountings of holdings. They're translating slightly differently
Speaker 1: depending on what translation you're reading. For example, in that
Speaker 1: John Dryden translation, the first group, called the pentacosoid medem noi,
Speaker 1: had to have an estate that was worth quote, five
Speaker 1: hundred measures of fruit, dry and liquid. Other translations assign
Speaker 1: a value to that measure that's more recognizable to modern readers,
Speaker 1: so the requirement is described as being that their land
Speaker 1: needed to yield at least five hundred bushels of produce.
Speaker 1: The second group was the hypaeus. These were people whose
Speaker 1: production level was three hundred to five hundred bushels per
Speaker 1: year or quote, that could keep a horse. Next was
Speaker 1: the zugatai, with two hundred to three hundred bushels, and
Speaker 1: the last group was the thetes, whose produce was estimated
Speaker 1: at less than two hundred bushels. People who worked the
Speaker 1: land as laborers but did not own it were automatically
Speaker 1: put into that last group as well. It kind of
Speaker 1: became a catch all. And the reason for all this
Speaker 1: accounting and sorting was that in Solon's new system, different
Speaker 1: levels of the social strata would have different degrees of
Speaker 1: agency in government. So members of the first two classes
Speaker 1: could hold public office. Members of the third class could
Speaker 1: hold lesser roles in government. Members of the fourth thetes
Speaker 1: group could not hold public office, but they could quote
Speaker 1: come to assembly and act as jurors. Clutarch describes this
Speaker 1: as an enormous privilege, noting that this meant they had
Speaker 1: a say in all the many disputes that were argued legally.
Speaker 1: But to some historians it seems more likely that overall
Speaker 1: the lives of people in the Thetes class didn't change
Speaker 1: all that much, although they did have legal equality in
Speaker 1: a way they hadn't had before. Some of this, according
Speaker 1: to Plutarch, was because he was cagey about the way
Speaker 1: he wrote his laws. Quote. Besides, it is said that
Speaker 1: he was obscure and ambiguous in the wording of his
Speaker 1: laws on purpose to increase the honor of his courts.
Speaker 1: For since their differences could not be adjusted by the letter,
Speaker 1: they would have to bring all their causes to the judges,
Speaker 1: who thus were, in a manner masters of the laws,
Speaker 1: so knowing that any dispute would have a lot of
Speaker 1: gray area no matter the social class levels of each
Speaker 1: of the parties involved, they would have to go before
Speaker 1: a court to make their cases, so everyone's positions would
Speaker 1: be heard. So that sounds like maybe a pretty clever
Speaker 1: trick on Solin's part, But it has gotten a lot
Speaker 1: of criticism over the centuries, and we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about some of that criticism after we hear from the
Speaker 1: sponsors who keep the show going. The vague nature of
Speaker 1: Solin's law writing has been criticized by many overtime, most
Speaker 1: notably by Aristotle. Aristotle did not believe the story that
Speaker 1: Salen had carefully crafted nebulous laws to ensure a sort
Speaker 1: of equality. Writing quote. This, however, is not probable, and
Speaker 1: the reason, no doubt, was that it is impossible to
Speaker 1: attain ideal perfection when framing a law in general terms,
Speaker 1: for we must judge of his intentions not from the
Speaker 1: actual results in the present day, but from the general
Speaker 1: tenor of the rest of his legislation. Aristotle did, though,
Speaker 1: acknowledge that this nebulous law writing resulted in greater representation
Speaker 1: in the courts for the lower classes. Another change that
Speaker 1: Salin made was to wipe the Draconian laws almost entirely
Speaker 1: off the books. Draco had been a leader of Athens
Speaker 1: a couple of decades before Solon and had laid down
Speaker 1: a lot of very strict laws, where the word draconian
Speaker 1: comes from. Most crimes, even minor ones like stealing a
Speaker 1: piece of fruit, were punishable by death. Plutarch relays the
Speaker 1: story of Draco being asked why his laws insisted that
Speaker 1: even the mildest crimes carried death sentences, and his reply was, quote,
Speaker 1: small ones deserve that, and I have no higher for
Speaker 1: the greater crimes. This ideology was very unpopular, so Solin
Speaker 1: repealed all except for the laws that related to homicide. Yeah,
Speaker 1: especially when you consider that in the greater context of
Speaker 1: the economic problems we're talking about, where people didn't have
Speaker 1: enough to eat, they didn't have any money because they
Speaker 1: had to give it all towards these mounting debts, there
Speaker 1: were probably a lot of people stealing food, and like
Speaker 1: the idea that they were going to die so that
Speaker 1: their family could have bread was just seen as really,
Speaker 1: really over the top. The new laws under Solin were
Speaker 1: much more reasonable. There are some varying interpretations of how
Speaker 1: they came to be. Salon is sometimes credited with creating
Speaker 1: a council of four hundred, that's one hundred men from
Speaker 1: each of the four tribes of Athens, which, according to
Speaker 1: Aristotle he quote, assigned to the Council of the Areopagus
Speaker 1: the duty of superintending the laws, acting as before as
Speaker 1: the guardian of the constitution. In general, it kept watch
Speaker 1: over the affairs of state in most of the more
Speaker 1: important matters, and corrected offenders with full powers to inflict
Speaker 1: either fines or personal punishment. But it should be noted
Speaker 1: that Salon did not invent the idea of the Council
Speaker 1: of four hundred. Draco had done the same thing, although
Speaker 1: his obviously worked in a different way. Aristotle also describes
Speaker 1: the way that Salon set his new laws in clear
Speaker 1: public view once they were made quote. The laws were
Speaker 1: inscribed on the wooden stands and set up in the
Speaker 1: king's porch, and all swore to obey them, and the
Speaker 1: nine archons made oath upon the stone, declaring they would
Speaker 1: dedicate a golden statue if they should transgress any of them.
Speaker 1: This is the origin of the oath to that effect,
Speaker 1: which they take to the present day. Salon ratified his
Speaker 1: laws for one hundred years. One hundred years sounds like
Speaker 1: a long time, And once he thought he had settled
Speaker 1: all of the major problems, and set up a system
Speaker 1: that he believed would work for all of the people
Speaker 1: of Athens. Salon stepped down from the position of Arkhan,
Speaker 1: and he left. He had created legislation for inheritance, for crimes,
Speaker 1: for how export and import would work, for how political
Speaker 1: mechanisms worked, laws about marriage and dowries, and even a
Speaker 1: law that made it illegal to speak ill of the dead.
Speaker 1: It was truly a comprehensive package of guidelines. And he
Speaker 1: did not want to be tempted to change those rules.
Speaker 1: And he did not want to hang around and let
Speaker 1: people complain to him about those laws and try to
Speaker 1: get him to repeal them. And so, according to his legend,
Speaker 1: and he started traveling, leaving Athens for ten years. Some
Speaker 1: accounts indicate that the people of Athens promised to abide
Speaker 1: by the laws that Salin had set forth, and that
Speaker 1: that ten year period was also so that they could
Speaker 1: become completely established without people trying to change them. Not
Speaker 1: all versions of Salin's life story include this. Plutarch's, for example,
Speaker 1: leaves it out, but it does also suggest that Salin
Speaker 1: made this decision after he had been harangued by people
Speaker 1: for a little bit where he was just like, I'm leaving.
Speaker 1: Salin's first stop was Egypt, where he's said to have
Speaker 1: studied with the most learned priests and learned about the
Speaker 1: lost City of Atlantis, a tale he put into verse
Speaker 1: to bring home and share with his fellow Greeks. He
Speaker 1: then went to Cyprus and helped with the building of
Speaker 1: a city by Demophon, who was the son of Theseus.
Speaker 1: So we mentioned at the top of the show that
Speaker 1: Solon appears in the story of Criesus of Lydia, and
Speaker 1: we mentioned that in our crisis episode, but we'll go
Speaker 1: over it again in a brief version. The way that
Speaker 1: one goes is that Salen decided to visit the king
Speaker 1: he may have been summoned to the king, and that
Speaker 1: Cresus spent their entire visit showing off all that he
Speaker 1: had acquired, and even had the staff of his household
Speaker 1: point out all of the lux items that the king
Speaker 1: had to show this visiting Athenian that he was rich, rich, rich,
Speaker 1: And then Crisus asked Salen who the most fortunate man
Speaker 1: he had ever seen was, expecting, of course, the answer
Speaker 1: to be Crisus, but Salin said it was an Athenian
Speaker 1: named Tellus, who had lived a good life and had
Speaker 1: good children who all survived to adulthood and had children
Speaker 1: of their own, and that he had died an honorable death.
Speaker 1: And then Crisus kept asking who the next most fortunate
Speaker 1: man was that Salen had met, hoping that the answer
Speaker 1: would eventually be him, but it was always other people,
Speaker 1: often with much more mundane lives. And finally Crisus kind
Speaker 1: of pressed Solin about why he wasn't on his list,
Speaker 1: and the Athenian stated that he couldn't count any man
Speaker 1: happy until his death, when he could see his life.
Speaker 1: In totality, it's a pretty good story, but it's really
Speaker 1: a parable about what's actually valuable in life, And even
Speaker 1: though Plutarch includes it in his account of Solin's life,
Speaker 1: he himself kind of suggests that it's probably fiction and
Speaker 1: notes that it doesn't fit the actual timeline of history,
Speaker 1: writing quote that Solon should discourse with Creases. Some think
Speaker 1: not agreeable with chronology, but I cannot reject so famous
Speaker 1: and well attested a narrative, and what is more so,
Speaker 1: agreeable to Solon's temper and so worthy his wisdom and
Speaker 1: greatness of mind. The reason there were arguments about whether
Speaker 1: it could be real is because Creases's rain would have
Speaker 1: only begun kind of right as Solin's ten years away
Speaker 1: from Athens would have ended. And that's even if all
Speaker 1: of the dates that we think we know are correct,
Speaker 1: which of course is its own problem. A lot of
Speaker 1: them are estimates. Back home in Athens, things were not
Speaker 1: going great. Initially, all of Salin's new laws and reforms
Speaker 1: seems to work out okay, but after a few years
Speaker 1: there was in fighting in discord. People started to jockey
Speaker 1: for power, so when he got back it was kind
Speaker 1: of a mess. People were glad to see him, but
Speaker 1: he was too old to really take on the job
Speaker 1: of totally reorganizing everything again. He did meet with leaders
Speaker 1: of the various factions in this conflict to try to
Speaker 1: help find a resolution, but a man named Pessistratus ultimately
Speaker 1: seized power. Solin was deeply opposed to his rule and
Speaker 1: protested it, even though he was quite old at this point,
Speaker 1: and his friends encouraged him to leave the city. He
Speaker 1: made speeches to try to stop the rising tyranny of Pisistratus.
Speaker 1: When Salin was asked why he felt so emboldened to
Speaker 1: challenge Pisistratus, he answered that it was his old age. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was kind of like, I'm running on empty, I
Speaker 1: might as well gun it, like I'm I'm gonna fight
Speaker 1: the power. But there is an interesting turn about that
Speaker 1: happened where Pisistratus did not kill Solin, although a lot
Speaker 1: of people expected him to instead. According to Plutarch, he
Speaker 1: quotes so extremely courted Solon, so honored him, obliged him,
Speaker 1: and sent to see him that Salin gave him his
Speaker 1: advice and approved many of his actions. For he retained
Speaker 1: most of Soalin's laws, observed them himself, and compelled his
Speaker 1: friends to obey. So there's an interesting thing here right
Speaker 1: where Pisistratus is considered a tyrant most of the time
Speaker 1: if you look him up today, because he gained his
Speaker 1: power by force, But he is also credited with making
Speaker 1: Athens very prosperous and kind of bringing about an age
Speaker 1: of not just prosperity but stability. The length of time
Speaker 1: that Salen lived after the rule of Pisistratus is really
Speaker 1: different among the varying accounts. Some say just a couple
Speaker 1: of years, others a very long time. He worked on
Speaker 1: his verse story about Atlantis toward the end of his life,
Speaker 1: but was not able to finish it. It said that
Speaker 1: when he died, his ashes were scattered around Salamis, in
Speaker 1: accordance with his wishes. But Plutarch writes quote, the story
Speaker 1: that his ashes were scattered about the island Salamis is
Speaker 1: too strange to be easily believed or be thought anything
Speaker 1: but a mere fable, And yet it is given, amongst
Speaker 1: other good authors, by Aristotle the philosopher. This cracks me
Speaker 1: up because he's like, well, so many people said he
Speaker 1: met Criesus. That must have happened, But this whole scattering
Speaker 1: of ashes seems bananas. That couldn't have. Of the two,
Speaker 1: one is very easy to be believed. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: it just makes me giggle. So we have noted in
Speaker 1: this episode that Solin wrote a lot of verse, so
Speaker 1: I thought it seemed fitting to end with one brief
Speaker 1: line that he wrote late in his life, which is
Speaker 1: a pretty good piece of advice, and I feel like
Speaker 1: is very much in the spirit of stuff you missed
Speaker 1: in history class, and that is each day grow older
Speaker 1: and learn something new. Sounds great to me sure, So
Speaker 1: finally I have knocked Solin off of my list. All
Speaker 1: Ray and the universe can stop sending me pro solid propaganda.
Speaker 1: Hopefully no more people called Solin being jerks on the
Speaker 1: internet especially. I mean, listen, people will always invoke any
Speaker 1: philosopher and then kind of put together a profile of
Speaker 1: like just being cruel and mean because people just want
Speaker 1: to be mean on social media. That's fine. It wasn't
Speaker 1: mean to me. I just noticed he was being a
Speaker 1: jerk anyway. Don't be a jerk to people online or
Speaker 1: in your life. I have a fun piece of email
Speaker 1: about both popcorn and the way someone's family connects to
Speaker 1: history we've talked about. This is from our listener Ray,
Speaker 1: who writes, Dear Holly and Tracy. In the behind the
Speaker 1: Scenes about your History of Popcorn episode, you talked about
Speaker 1: different cooking methods and I needed to add to the list.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure this was also something I got from
Speaker 1: Alton Brown, so of course it works brilliantly. Just tossed
Speaker 1: about a quarter cup of popcorn kernels in a brown
Speaker 1: paper lunch bag, add oil and seasonings if you like,
Speaker 1: and then add afterward like air popped, fold the end,
Speaker 1: and staple it closed. I'm going to have an aside here.
Speaker 1: I do remember there being a very early version of
Speaker 1: this where I think too it was Alton Brown that said,
Speaker 1: like you can use a staple, it will not cause
Speaker 1: problems in your microwave. However, if you look up his
Speaker 1: recipe today on Food Network or any of the other
Speaker 1: websites that carry it, the staple is no longer recommended.
Speaker 1: It's a double fold that's like hard creased so that
Speaker 1: you don't run a foul of anything in your microwave.
Speaker 1: But then, I'm so my aside is ended. Don't put
Speaker 1: metal in your microwave, and microwave three continues the same
Speaker 1: way you would store bought microwave popcorn. Now that I've
Speaker 1: gotten the important popcorn info in the real reason I
Speaker 1: wanted to write to you for years is just a
Speaker 1: fun fact that probably has little interest to anyone outside
Speaker 1: my family and friends. An interview about the Lower east
Speaker 1: Side Tenement Museum sometime before I started listening. I was
Speaker 1: excited to see it when I looked at the back catalog,
Speaker 1: because my family's apartment is preserved as an exhibit in
Speaker 1: that museum. They weren't mentioned in the episodes, but I
Speaker 1: remember going to the opening when I was a little kid,
Speaker 1: and it was so fascinating They do an incredible job
Speaker 1: with engaging young people and making connections to history, even
Speaker 1: for those who aren't literally looking at their great great
Speaker 1: aunts and uncles. I'm also including pictures of my senior
Speaker 1: pitbull Karma, not so much as pet tax as an
Speaker 1: excuse to shove pictures of my dog in someone else's face.
Speaker 1: This week. Baby turned fifteen in January, and she's definitely
Speaker 1: the best dog ever. No bias, Okay, one yes, popcorn
Speaker 1: at home, easy PC. You don't have to buy microwave.
Speaker 1: I buy microwaves sometimes because I'm lazy and it's pre
Speaker 1: portioned and I don't have to think, and sometimes that's
Speaker 1: how I want to snack. But I have often used
Speaker 1: the paperbag trick and it works just fine. I love
Speaker 1: the idea of knowing that your family's apartment is part
Speaker 1: of the ten museum. That is cool, and that is
Speaker 1: a very cool museum. Karma is so cute. I want
Speaker 1: to kiss her face. Her eyes just stare right into
Speaker 1: my heart and they're so She's so cute. I love
Speaker 1: a pity. You know, they get a lot of bed press,
Speaker 1: But I have known some of the sweetest dogs I
Speaker 1: have ever known in my life are pip bulls who
Speaker 1: are just big hunks of muscly adoration. They just want
Speaker 1: to be a lappuppy and hugging kiss all the time.
Speaker 1: I love them. Yeah, I think there are probably people
Speaker 1: currently typing angry emails about metal in the microwave. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna say there's some nuance to that. It's not
Speaker 1: a podcast to give advice on it. Yeah, listen, I
Speaker 1: just am My thing is I was like, always steer
Speaker 1: clear of any risk when it comes to your snacks.
Speaker 1: There's just no reason to take a risk for a snack.
Speaker 1: So in the behind the scenes I will talk about
Speaker 1: a very silly experiment my husband and I did many
Speaker 1: mini Oh yeah, I know exactly the experiment you're talking about. Yes,
Speaker 1: it was so fun. I highly recommend it in a
Speaker 1: controlled situation. Ray. Anyway, Ray, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: sharing pictures of karma, once again invoking my favorite snack,
Speaker 1: and sharing your family's connection to the Tenement Museum. If
Speaker 1: you would like to write us, you can do so
Speaker 1: at History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. You can also
Speaker 1: find us on social media as missed in History, and
Speaker 1: if you would like to subscribe to the show and
Speaker 1: you haven't yet. That is easy to do on the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app or wherever it is you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows. Stuff you Missed in History Class is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.